The Daily News. SATURDAY, JANUARY 15, 1916. HERR HOLLWEG'S HUSKS.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 January 1916, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, JANUARY 15, 1916. HERR HOLLWEG'S HUSKS.

.The speech made by the German Chancellor, Hcrr Bethmann Hollweg at the opening of the Prussian Diet (appearing in to-clny's cable columns), is strictly in keeping with the general .tenor of German official pronouncements. The Germans are starving for news that is true,, and they are fed on the husks of deliberate fabrications. The same oftrepeated reiterations and false accusations against Britain, the same sneers at her impo-tency to injure the Fatherland, the same bombastic laudations of German achievements against a world of enemies, the same blasphemous boasting, and the same tale about the soundness of finance. Kvidently the Chancellor considers that his people expect this sort of enthusing material, and as it costs mere words it is served up on every occasion. It does not- seem to have occurred to his super-intelligence that his countrymen must have woefully degenerated to swallow these husks--attenuated as the}' are by frequent handling—or is it that the spirit of the nation is so crushed that it can exist on delusions and fabrications that they must know are but as particles of dust thrown into their eyes? Surely, by th'is time the intelligent portion of the German community (if there are any left), must know that the oft-repeated excuse that war was forced on the nation has been completely exposed and dissipated, yet it again formed part of the Chancellor's oration. The same may be said of the statement that the enemies' project for cutting Germany oft from overseas has failed. The Germans have only to ask themselves why all their shipping is idle and why they can only get imports Vty subterfuge through neutral countries. If the nation is so well provided with food, why is it that food riots have occurred necessitating the aid of the military fo suppress mid murder the rioters? If the entire manhood is so unitedly fighting with brotherly loyalty and apparently eager for its continuance, why is it- that peace posters, bills and circulars arc surreptitiously posted in the streets if licrlin or slipped under doors, secret meetings held at night, and the cause of anti-militarism making great headway? The fact is that the German people .U'3 weary of the war, horrified at its terrible drain on the manhood of the country, oppressed by the colossal burden of its cost, depressed by the high prices and scarcity of the necessaries of life, and despondent over the gloomy outlsok—and well they may be. Empty boasts and misrepresentations are all that the Chancellor has to offer his people, and like docile slaves they must swallow these husks until they shake oil' their serfdom and assert their manhood. Meanwhile, the wastage goes on, empty victories attained at a huge cost nf life are proclaimed as evidence of German invincibility, while the hand of Fate is slowly but surely recording the doom of the boasters and striking the knell of that hideous system—German militarism —which Hcrr ilolhv' ;> .tssorlj; is liberty based 011 order.